


A Million Miles to Go

by heygirl



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, It's gonna be cute, they're gonna be running buddies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-26 11:23:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12556356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heygirl/pseuds/heygirl
Summary: Lena is forced onto her high school cross country team to continue the family legacy. Kara is just there for fun because she's good at it. When it's clear that Lena needs help living up to the family standards, Kara starts to train her.





	1. one

Lena doesn’t even like running.

She has no idea why she’s even here. Except that she does, because like everything else she’s ever done in her life, she’s following a Luthor family tradition. 

Besides being known for their obscene wealth, the Luthors are also known for being a family of competitive cross country runners, at least in college and high school. And Lena, of course, is expected to follow in those footsteps.

Her father, grandfather, and brother each have 3 state championships under their belt. Lex was actually on track to win that elusive fourth title before an incident kept him from doing so. 

So it’s safe to say that Lena is feeling the pressure as she shows up to the first cross country practice of the season.

Except for one person, she doesn’t recognize anyone there and the one girl she does know, she would rather scream than have to interact with.

Like all the other times she’s ever spent at school, she sits alone, off to the side trying not to attract attention to herself. 

As practice, which is honestly more of an informational meeting than anything this early in the season, starts, Lena can feel someone looking at her; it’s the one person that she’s trying to avoid having to talk to, Kara Danvers.

It’s not that she hates the girl, quite the opposite in fact, but their family has a history of bad blood since the incident between her brother and Kara’s cousin, Clark. She thinks it would be best to avoid bringing up any residual feelings and ill will and pretends not to notice how Kara is trying to catch her eye. It’s awkward enough that everyone knows what her brother did to Clark and hates him, their family, and by extension, her for it.

She doesn’t want to give people another reason to gossip, to hate her, to think that she is exactly like the rest of her family, so she is just going to have to steer clear of Kara Danvers.

After everyone had had their name called, a healthy number of people sneering when they hear her name, they get to the actual running part of practice and Lena wants to cry.

They have to run the two-mile perimeter around the school campus and that honestly sounds impossible to her.

Lena has never done sports before, never run or done any sort of physical activity that wasn’t required of her before, so she’s really not cut out for this. How on earth is she going to run miles upon miles? 

If anyone is expecting her to have the natural talent of her familial predecessors, they are dead wrong.

Almost immediately after the whistle blows and the pack of runners takes off, Lena has trouble setting a pace for herself. While she is completely inexperienced in actual running, she knows some things about how to be a successful running because of her brother. 

The first couple of minutes aren’t totally awful but quickly after that everything goes to shit and Lena is suffering.

Her heart is beating erratically, her lungs and her legs are on fire, and sweat is dripping down into her eyes. It’s decidedly unpleasant.

She briefly thinks that she should quit before she realizes two things: 1. She is not a quitter 2. Her mother would never allow it. 

They’ve already fought about it extensively and it’s a lost cause, so this is her life for the next four years until she graduates from high school. 

It’s really going to suck.


	2. two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's not going all that well for lena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so i lied, lena and kara only interact briefly in this chapter but next chapter i swear they are going to say more than one sentence to each other!!

So, Lena’s first practice doesn’t go great. 

Not that she thought she was suddenly going to become an amazing runner in one day but she’s still a little disappointed in herself.

Scratch that, she was actually really proud of herself for completing the two miles without collapsing but then the coach made some offhand comment about how she was not the fierce runner she expected of a Luthor. Now she just feels a little shitty.

But she’s not going to let it get to her more than it already has. She doesn’t want to be compared to the rest of her family. She’s better than them, just maybe not at running. 

When she shows up for practice the next day, her everything is sore. She can’t move a muscle without wincing. How are all the people around her acting like everything is fine when she’s literally dying just standing there?

“Ok guys, gather around. I want to talk to you all.”, the coach yells and Lena moves in closer to hear what he has to say.

“This weekend we’re going to have our first meet. It’s not an official meet for the records; I just want to see how you guys handle a race and it’s going to help me determine whether I should put you on the JV team or the Varsity team.”

Lena is automatically nervous. She can’t run for shit and she knows that she’s going to make a fool of herself at the race. 

Her parents are going to want to go to the meet and while she doesn’t necessarily care about what they think of her, a deeper part of her wants to impress them and she’ll just end up embarrassing herself in front of them. 

“Make your way to the gate, we’re going to be running off campus today for a bit of a longer run. Everyone stick with somebody so you don’t get lost.”, the coach yells.

Everyone grabs someone of similar running pace and only Lena was left alone. Or so she thought.

“Winn, don’t you have someone to pair up with?”

“Umm, no. I don’t think anyone really runs as slow as I do.”, Winn says. Lena knew him, or rather, knew of him. He was one of the people that Kara hangs out with. 

The coach looks around for a second until he spots Lena standing by herself. 

“Ms. Luthor here doesn’t have a partner either. I seem to recall that you two finished yesterday around the same time. You two are running buddies now.”

Lena looks awkwardly over at Winn. He’s already looking at her, a slightly uncomfortable look on his face. 

A whistle blows and then they’re running. Lena doesn’t say anything to Winn and he returns the favor of staying silent, somehow sensing that this was as uncomfortable for her as it was for him.

After the first half mile where they ran on even sidewalk, they get to a slight incline and Lena starts to lose her steam. She’s just barely ahead of Winn and she intends to keep it that way. Even second to last is better than being dead last. 

She really truly tries to maintain her pace but this incline is killing her. Her knees are starting to buckle and bump against each other and she starts breathing through her mouth, things that she should not be doing. 

Winn jogs right passed her and she’s frustrated. She’s part of a family of state champions and she can’t even make it one mile without giving up. She feels like a failure.

She’s struggling to keep her tears at bay when Winn stops slightly ahead of her and looks back. 

She’s about to shout at him to mind his own business when he says, “It’s a little easier to run upward when you lift your knees a little higher.”

She looks at him in confusion, a small “What?” falling from her lips.

“We learned that during summer practice, I promise I’m not making it up.”, Winn says again, looking a little frightened.

She stares at him a little longer, wondering why on earth he is being nice to her, trying to help her. She takes his advice nonetheless and finds that what he said is true. It is a little easier, though it is by no means easy. She still wants to pass out but maybe not as much.

She falls into step with Winn and together they struggle through the next mile before hitting the halfway point where the coach is sitting in the back of his car, water bottles surrounding them. 

“I’m going to stop for a drink of water if you want to join.”, Winn says, clearly winded. 

Lena really doesn’t want to. Just because he’s been nice to her so far doesn’t mean she wants to spend any extra time with him if she doesn’t have to. Her throat is parched, however, so she nods.

They jog slowly over to the truck and grab a water bottle each, chugging half of it in one go.

Lena stretches a little as she waits for Winn to finish drinking his water. Out of nowhere, she hears footsteps running their way and right in front of her is Kara Danvers, looking cute as ever even with her red face and swear plastered hair.

“Hey, Winn. How’s your run going?”, she says.

“I’m dying, thanks.”, he replies.

Kara laughs.

“I think you’re crazy for running one more mile than we have to.”, Winn says as he fixes his shoes.

“I don’t know, I like it.”, Kara says with a smile on her face.

“We still have half the run left. It’s not going to be fun.”, he says, motioning to Lena as he talks. 

Kara looks over at her for the first time since she showed up at the impromptu water station. 

“Well, I guess I’ll see you back at school then. Bye Winn.”, she says, turning to continue her run, then turns back for a second to say, “Bye Lena.” And then she’s off. 

Lena and Winn also take off but definitely at a much slower, more manageable pace.  


\----  


They are the second to last to get back to campus. Lena bids Winn a quick goodbye and practically rushes to the girls’ changing room. 

As she dresses back into her regular clothes because god forbid she get into the car in sweaty clothes, she thinks about her Saturday meet. It’s going to be bad and there’s nothing she can really do about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter is going to serve as the catalyst for lena and kara being training buddies


	3. three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lena's first meet.

Lena was right. She doesn’t know what she expected but she shouldn’t really be all that surprised when her parents hardly speak to her on the ride home from her first meet. She   
wishes the backseat would just swallow her up. 

\---

When Lena gets to the spot where the cross country team was meeting up before the race, she is the last one to show up. Her parents insisted on driving her to the meet themselves rather than have her ride with the rest of the team on the school bus. 

She is already dressed in her uniform, a plain navy blue polyester tank top and matching shorts with “National City” emblazoned on the front and a pair of similarly colored Nikes. 

She had asked her mother to add a little bit of color to the uniform by getting a demure mint green pair of shoes but her mother simply raised an eyebrow and Lena gave in. 

She sits at the edge of the tarp set on the ground and watches as the coach hands out what looks like small pieces of paper with the runners’ names on them. 

When she gets hers, she quickly pins it to her uniform shirt and fidgets nervously as she waits for the coach to tell them all when their respective races are.

The race she is going to run in, the 9th grade girls group, is third on the list, after the girls and boys junior high groups complete their race. 

She sits quietly and drinks her water and tries not to think about how she’s going to do. The rest of the practices this week had gone the same as her first two; she would start off at a good pace that would last her 10 minutes at most and then she would start to lose energy and just suffer through the last couple of miles. 

In her defense, for the first week of running, she had done pretty well for herself, but she definitely didn’t have the endurance needed for a real race like the one she was about to run.

Feeling a little sick from all the nerves, Lena gets up to go the bathroom in the last couple she has before she has to make her way over to the starting line. She walks right into the first available stall and just stands here, heart racing and palms sweating, and wishes to anyone that can hear her that she doesn’t make a fool of herself in front of her parents. 

She pees before exiting the stall because she’s had a lot of water and her nervousness is affecting her bladder. As she heads to the sink to wash her hands, she sees Kara at the only other sink and quickly averts her eyes. 

Kara is washing her hands and humming a song she’s heard on the radio and doesn’t immediately notice Lena. Going to dry her hands, Kara finally looks up and sees Lena intently looking at her hands.

“Good luck on the race, Lena.”, Kara says before walking passed Lena and out the door. 

Lena doesn’t have time to say anything, and doesn’t know that she would have if she did, before she hears the whistle blow, signaling that they have ten minutes to get ready before the 9th grade girls race starts. 

She walks out to the tent where the rest of the team is sitting and distractedly listens as the coach gives a short motivational speech.

“Here, you might want to put some of this on that way you won’t get a sunburn. You look like you might burn easily”, Winn says, holding a bottle of sunscreen in front of her face. 

Lena frowns slightly at him in confusion.

“It was just… sorry, I was joking. Not about the sunscreen I mean”, he stammers, “About you burning easily. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Lena carefully takes the sunscreen from his outstretched hands.

“It’s fine. Thanks, I guess.”, she says. It’s kind of sweet of him, a little weird, but nice. 

She hands it back to him as she gets up to walk over to the starting line. 

“Good luck!”, he shouts.

She turns back briefly, a small smile on her face and nods in his direction.

The walk to the start of the race is nerve-wracking. Her heart is beating fast and she feel like she can’t even breathe correctly. Great, the race hasn’t even begun and she’s already feeling out of breath. It’s not a great start for her.

She walks to the back of the pack of runners, not trying to kid herself, and waits for the sound of the gun to signal the start of the race.

Once it sounds, she’s off. 

She focuses on keeping her breathing even as her feet hit the ground again and again and manages to find a little bit of peace as she runs. Even though she hates it, she can’t deny that running sort of calms her. There is something about the repeated motion of it that eases her mind. 

This doesn’t last long as long as Lena hopes, however, as she starts to feel her breathing get away from her and is having a hard time keeping up her pace as she begins running on a small incline. She would never admit it, but not having Winn to help her keep the same running speed is making it hard for her right now. 

The burn in her legs gets worse and her lungs are struggling to bring air into her body but she takes comfort in the fact that at the halfway point, she is not the last runner. She’s definitely not the first but she isn’t doing as bad as she anticipated. Lena’s a little proud of herself. 

Another three minutes into the race, however, Lena is convinced that she is dying. Most of the race, up until this point, had been on solid concrete but, because nothing is ever in Lena’s favor, the trail now turned from the concrete into tall grass.

Tall grass is not easy to run in, aside from sand and mud, it’s actually one of the hardest surfaces to run on because the energy exerted by a runner’s legs is basically swallowed by the ground rather than pushed back into their legs, as is done when running on concrete. Lena knows this and feels the effects of running on grass immediately. 

She can’t lift her legs as high and doesn’t get an bounce back from the ground, making her put more effort into her strides. Her legs start to scream for mercy and her arms feel like lead weighing her down. Lena only has half a mile left, she can actually see the finish line, but it might as well be ten miles away with how tired she was feeling. 

She hums a song she remembers hearing on the radio in hopes that it will help her establish a slower but still consistent pace. She still isn’t the last runner but she can see other girls slowly creeping up on her through her peripheral and she wants to badly to maintain her position ahead of them. 

The humming actually helps for a few minutes but she doesn’t feel as though she’s getting any closer to the finish line. To make matters worse, the shoelace on her left shoe unties and she’s left with the decision to either stop running and tie it or hope to God that she doesn’t trip. 

She keeps jogging though, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to easily start again if she stopped. 

“A quarter of a mile left. Keep going!”, a man to her left yells as she passes him. 

She’s gifted with a sudden burst of energy as she begins running on solid ground again and picks up her pace enough that she can no longer feel the other girls right behind her. 

As she continues with this burst of energy, she realizes that she’s still a little far from the end and that the girls behind her, while not super close to her, have also started picking up their pace. Lena needs to stay ahead of them and wills herself to keep running.

The finish line is right over the bridge of the duck pond and so close yet so far. Lena is pushing her body to its limit to make it there as fast as possible but it’s the hardest thing she’s physically done in her life. 

As she feels her knees bump into each other and her hands clench with the effort she’s putting into finishing the last of her race, Lena notices that her breathing is harsh and that her eyes are prickling with the beginning of tears. She’s shocked to realize that she’s on the verge of crying. Her body and her lungs hurt so much that she shouldn’t really be surprised, but she is. 

She cannot be showing this emotion right now, or ever really. It’s not becoming of a Luthor. So she reaches her hand to her face and roughly wipes at her eyes. 

From the periphery of her vision, she sees another runner sneaking up to her side. It’s going to be a close finish but she’ll be damned if she’s put down a space on the scoreboard this late in the race. 

Grunting as she forces her legs to rise and fall at a faster rate, Lena barely makes her way across the finish line half a second before the other girl. She slows her run to a jog and falls to the grass below her.

Her breathing is uneven as she struggles to fill her lungs and lays down and covers her face with her arm. She smiles. She actually finished the race without passing out, wild. 

She’s riding on a high for all of two seconds before she feels someone standing over her. When she removes her arm, she’s looking up into the eyes of her mother. Lena knows it’s not going to be a pleasant conversation by the look on her mother’s face.

“Stand up, Lena. Luthors do not lay on the dirty floor. Have some dignity.”, Lillian says as she shifts away from her daughter as Lena stands up. 

Lena looks expectantly over at her mother. It’s best to just let her say what she was to say.

“Well, that performance was certainly not one worthy of the Luthor name.”, Lillian starts as Lena looks at the ground, ashamed. “We expected better of you. We still expect better of you, which is why we are going to have the coach recommend someone to do some extra training with you. We can’t have the Luthor legacy damaged by your unwillingness to compete.”

“Well mother, this was only my first race. You can hardly expect me to be an amazing runner this –“

“Hush, Lena dear. It’s not a suggestion. You are going to train extra until you excel at running, just like the Luthors before you.”, Lillian says as starts to walk away, “Now go over to your coach, I believe he has already found someone who is willing and able to train you.”

Lena sighs as she makes her way back to the tent where the rest of her team is. She’ll never be as good as her parents want.

“Lena, come here please.”, the coach says as soon as he spots her. He’s talking with Kara as she walks up to him and Lena expects her to walk away by the time she gets there but she doesn’t.

Instead, he introduces Kara to Lena, as though they have never met, and explains that Kara has volunteered to train Lena for the remainder of the season.

“Your parents were adamant that you get some extra training and well, Kara is one of the best runners we have on the team. She’s going to help you bring that time down.”, he says, “I’ll let you two get acquainted and figure out the best time to fit in that extra training. We’ll talk it over at Monday’s practice.”

Kara looks at her. Lena stands there, shocked. There goes her plan to avoid Kara Danvers for the rest of high school. 

“Hey, Lena. Hope you don’t mind that we’ll be working together.” Kara says, shooting an wide smile at Lena, as though her brother didn’t try to sabotage her cousin’s running career.

Lena doesn’t say anything, just stares until she can start to feel Kara getting uncomfortable.

“Uh, yeah I don’t mind.”, she lies, “Thanks, I suppose.”

And with that, she turns and walks away, thinking desperately of a plan to get out of this arrangement by any means necessary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i used to run cross country in high school, it sucked lmao.
> 
> anyway, told you they'd talk (even if it was literally right at the end). they're gonna interact for real next chapter. it's gonna be great.

**Author's Note:**

> don't worry, kara and lena are actually going to interact in the next chapter.


End file.
